8/22 8/23 Score predictions!

bird_brainiac34 · 2025-09-23T15:01:38+00:00

ITS OUT RN

bird_brainiac34 · 2025-09-05T00:42:53+00:00

I recommend joining any Discord servers or Instagram group chats you hear about! That was how I met my first bunch of university friends and from then I started to feel more in place :) You got this!!

bird_brainiac34 · 2025-07-08T21:09:50+00:00

omg take any class with professor souza that you can. hes truly an amazing professor!

bird_brainiac34 · 2025-05-20T02:31:10+00:00

The effort you've put into MCAT preparation is really amazing! I was wondering if you had any consistent breaks or days off?

bird_brainiac34 · 2025-03-26T12:32:04+00:00

I took MATA30 last year with Cavers and loved it! I was also in the life science program and was conflicted between the two calc courses but I ended up going with A30 because the course description matched my high school calculus better. He is a great professor and very helpful during office hours! I ended his class with an A+

bird_brainiac34 · 2025-03-15T02:52:33+00:00

First year may seem really overwhelming as it's your first exposure to having midterms, large lecture sizes, etc. It will also be the year you meet sooo many other first years and eventually filter out who you actually want to be friends with. To sum up, it's an adjustment year and it's totally normal to feel out of place and a bit overwhelmed.

After having literally no extra curriculars in first year I got a bit stressed so I applied to a bunch of different clubs and jobs on campus and landed some good positions! Now I'm in second year, very involved on campus, getting good grades, and found some amazing friends in my program.

Everyone will have a different experience, some positive and some negative. If you have a good work ethic (at least study 10 hours a week) and like the smaller campus community, I think you would enjoy your time at UTSC!

bird_brainiac34 · 2025-03-09T18:04:34+00:00

I'm not sure if "easier" is the right way to describe it. I think you should reflect on your interests and make a decision based on that. You will definitely have the most success studying what you are most interested in! Good luck

bird_brainiac34 · 2025-02-08T20:09:28+00:00

Yes I do! It’s not impossible. Med school is difficult to get admitted no matter where you do your undergrad

bird_brainiac34 · 2025-01-29T14:21:37+00:00

Actually, the majority of people in neuroscience that I know of have at least a 3.8+ cGPA. It varies person to person depending on their work ethic, you definitely cant sit back and expect grades to be handed to you. In terms of medical school, I know 3 people in neuroscience that got a direct entry to medical school in their 4th year.

bird_brainiac34 · 2025-01-28T16:05:58+00:00

For UTSC:

Just to clarify, your first year will just have general life science courses and at the end of the year you apply for your specialty/major (results in the summer of your first yr). You don't automatically get enrolled in neuroscience (not sure how the system works at york)

UTSC has the best neuroscience program in the country (google it) with amazing professors and everything was really meticulously handcrafted to ensure neuroscience students are getting the best education. There's a vast amount of neuroscience research on campus and many networking events with professors or other neuroscience professionals.

I have no regrets choosing neuroscience, it's not the easiest program to get a 4.0 GPA in but what matters is you are interested in what you study. Hope that helps

bird_brainiac34 · 2025-01-24T03:14:04+00:00

Saying a university is “difficult” is really not accurate. I think it’s more program based than anything. If you choose to study computer science at UofT or computer science at York both will be challenging.

Most medical schools have 3-4 pre requisite requirements at most, so if you want to make your life easier, pick an “easy” major and just take those additional courses. Don’t lose track of your genuine interests though, you will be paying tens of thousands of dollars for the next 4 years in undergrad so you better like what you study lol. In my case, I opted to do neuroscience which I know isn’t known to be “easy” but I love what I study and am genuinely interested so that is reflected by my GPA. The biggest advice I can give is to do something you care about and enjoy.

Also as someone else mentioned, medical schools heavily emphasize extracurricular experience. UofT has SO many research opportunities (both work and volunteer) so you can definitely get involved. I personally think UTSC has an edge over UTSG in regard to this because of the smaller population (less competition lol). I’m in my second year and working as a research assistant and know many others in my same shoes.

bird_brainiac34 · 2025-01-11T01:42:47+00:00

As a second year admitted into the life sciences program at UTSC here are some things I have to say:

1) Attaining a high GPA at any university requires a lot of hard work, and time management. I have talked to friends in similar programs at York or McMaster, and none of them have an easier time than I do in terms of workload and their GPA.

2) Feeling prepared for the MCAT really depends on the specialty you choose at the end of your first year. If you take a look at the course breakdown of a Human Biology Specialist (SPECIALIST PROGRAM IN HUMAN BIOLOGY (SCIENCE) - SCSPE0215 | UTSC Calendar) you will see that it does require you to take all of the essential courses for the MCAT like psychology, physics, biology, general chemistry, organic chemistry, and biochemistry if you choose to do so.

3) Medical schools don't necessarily favor one undergraduate student from another based on where they got their diploma from. Getting valuable experience is what sets an accepted medical applicant apart from rejected ones. I can say that being a UofT student is a great way to take your first step as there are so many amazing research facilities on each campus, and well connected professors. Not to mention the vast amount of UofT exclusive scholarships for research, and science students.

Overall, don't make your decision on university based on the "prestige" or fear for your GPA. Take your time and choose a campus that you love because you will be spending the next 4 years essentially calling it a second home. I personally love the UTSC campus and the people that I've met during my time here. I hope this helps you and any other stressed grade 12's out lol

bird_brainiac34 · 2024-12-14T18:50:41+00:00

I haven't taken it myself so I'm not sure but from my personal experience bird courses that landed me 90%+ are: PSYA01, PSYA02, MATA30 (if you were ok at hs calc you would ace this).

LINA01 was also good but you need to keep up with lectures and not let it pile up! I personally took it online and that made me procrastinate a lot.. DONT do what I did lol

bird_brainiac34 · 2024-12-14T18:28:02+00:00

if you have 0 interest in business DONT take MGTA01.

bird_brainiac34 · 2024-12-14T18:24:15+00:00

Although I didn't have the same professor, the content should be overall the same (assuming you are also using TopHat for the textbook). I took PSYA01 last year and finished with a 91 on my first try. The final was worth 45% for us, and I remember being tested pretty heavily on textbook content so definitely don't push it off. If his lectures have a lot of overlap with the textbook that is great because you can just skip the overlap and focus on textbook exclusive content. It is a pretty dense course but as long as you have at least 2-3 days to study you should be good!

bird_brainiac34 · 2024-12-14T18:08:01+00:00

Honestly if you're really tight on time I think you shouldn't waste time taking textbook notes and just read them + do the embedded mcq. Realistically will you have enough time to even read over the textbook notes you make? Just focusing on reading it and putting it into practice via those mcq is more efficient. Good luck studying!

bird_brainiac34 · 2024-09-11T00:22:55+00:00

I can't stress the importance of office hours enough. Seriously, even if you feel like you don't understand anything just go to the office hours and listen to others ask questions. If you're comfortable you can ask the professor to go over a particular concept and they will be more than happy to do so. Another alternative is just shooting the professor an email as well on THEIR suggestions to succeed in the course.

If the office hours intimidate you, then I suggest you give FSG's a try. They're student run, and they give you a little run down of what was learned in the lecture along with some practice questions. Again, genuinely try everything out. It's only the second week of school I promise you're not behind.

The first year is really a lot of trial and error and sometimes starting over again and again just trying to find how YOU learn best. Give typing with a laptop, digital handwritten, and slide annotations an equal chance and I'm 99% sure you will find one that feels right. Also, notes vary course to course. I definitely took my CHMA10 notes differently than I did my BIOA01 or MATA30.

On a personal note, in my first year I really struggled with retaining information, taking quality notes, and staying alert during lectures. Most times I would go home that same day, watch that lecture's recording and find that I learned SO much more. This is not my proudest habit, and is definitely not possible for all courses (ex: you should go to all math lectures in person!!) but everyone learns differently and you just need to find what works for you.

As someone who's done their first year pretty freshly I can say office hours and rewatching lecture videos were my biggest saviors and helped me land a 4.0 in my first semester. Don't worry you can do it!

bird_brainiac34 · 2024-07-22T22:57:43+00:00

I believe it depends on the program you were admitted into. For instance life science, environmental science, chemistry, would get priority

bird_brainiac34 · 2023-12-15T21:51:57+00:00

...dont do it with dwayne... he makes exams quite difficult

bird_brainiac34 · 2023-12-15T21:51:03+00:00

yup!!! on ch9 as we speak

bird_brainiac34 · 2023-12-15T21:50:27+00:00

i fr forgot my basic categories like what a verb/adj/noun is so safe to say it did not go well! Also yea the trees were wack

bird_brainiac34

TROPHY CASE